You
likely know that local advertising is incredibly important for dental
practices. You may even be investing in Google Ads already.
But did you know that a newer Google Ad program called Local Service
Ads can increase your reach, and you’ll only pay for qualified leads,
AND Google will create the ads for you?
The good news is that there is! We’re talking about Google Local Service Ads or LSAs. At Titan Web Agency,
we work with dentists to help them achieve their practice growth goals.
LSAs are a powerful tool for dentists because they help increase your
practice visibility by allowing you to appear at the top of Google’s
search results. If done right, you’ll get qualified leads to grow your
practice.
We’ve
created this guide to help you set up and optimize LSAs, enabling you
to outperform your competitors and achieve your goals.
Understanding Local Service Ads for Dentists
Let’s start with an overview of Google Local Service Ads and how they work.
What Are Local Service Ads?
Local Service Ads are a form of online advertising with Google-generated ads. They’re available to certain types of businesses,
including healthcare providers and dentists. There’s a fairly involved
process to getting approved for Local Service Ads, which we will discuss
shortly.
Here’s one way that Local Service Ads will show up in the search results of Google:
How Do LSAs Differ from Traditional PPC Ads?
Here is the most basic overview of pay-per-click ads:
When you run a pay-per-click (PPC) ad,
you only pay for it when someone clicks on it. To run PPC ads on Google,
you bid on your keywords. Your ads appear when someone searches your
keyword and if your bid is high enough. There’s a ton of customization
you can do with local service ads, including dynamic ads (having Google
generate ads based on keywords), bid modifies (bid higher or lower based
on the query, location, device, time, etc.), negative keywords (don’t
show up if somebody types in a certain term even if they typed in your
main term), etc.
LSAs are different. You don’t need to
research keywords or bid on them. You’ll go through an approval process
with Google. Once approved, Google will generate ads for you based on
the conditions you treat, your area, your reviews, your feedback on the
leads you receive, and your budget.
These ads appear only to people in your
local area, and you pay only if you get a lead from the ad. A lead is a
prospective patient who calls or messages you or books an appointment
through the ad.
It’s important to note that you can dispute leads in certain cases, as mentioned below.
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Dispute category
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Examples
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Solicitation
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- Call was from a wrong number.
- Caller was trying to sell you a product or service.
- Call was from someone seeking employment at your business.
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Spam
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- Call was pre-recorded.
- Call was otherwise not from a live human.
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Location not served
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- The customer communicated their location, the location wasn’t listed on your profile, and you declined the job.
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Service not offered
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- The customer communicated their service type, the service wasn’t listed on your profile, and you declined the job.
- Caller was looking for a physical store or looking to buy something other than a service (for example, parts).
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Duplicate lead
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- The customer called to follow up on an existing lead for the same job within 15 days, and both the leads were charged.
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Google also
regularly reviews leads and credits any identified invalid leads. If you
can’t find a lead that you want to dispute, it’s possible that it has
already been credited or was never charged.
Continue reading about Local Service Ads for Dentists.